Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke -- America alone
====================================================

As disastrous as it was at the time, the hijacking of U.S. foreign
policy by neo-conservatives during the early years of the George W. 
Bush administration and its consequences are still with us.

Halper and Clarke help answer questions such as: Where did it and
neo-conservatives come from?  Why were they able to take control
and able do what they did?

Their book gives us the background and the historical view that
helps place this period in a broader perspective and context.  That
understanding does not guarantee that it won't happen again, but
might help.

What were some of the consequences of that period when our
government and its policies were hijacked by a group of ideologues?

- Loss of public trust in government -- Although, before you
  believe this, you need to first convince yourself that the
  American public as indeed woken up to the deceptions they were
  led to.  You also might want to ask whether generating mistrust
  of the Federal government was actually one of the
  neo-conservatives goals.  (A bit of conspiracy theory is likely
  to help in understanding something this strange.)

- On the foreign policy side, we've been led to isolationism and a
  reduced effectiveness from which we are still struggling to
  recover.

- Our militaristic approach to the "war on terror" has led us to an
  ineffective strategy for combating terrorists.  Yes, they are
  likely more afraid of us.  But, our belligerence also increased
  their motivation and helped to recruit more to their side.  And,
  our efforts in Afghanistan have turned into an extremely long war
  with questionable progress.

- The unipolar focus on the war on terror as led us to ignore other
  important foreign policy issues, for example the Israel-Palestine
  conflict, North Korea and their acquisition of nuclear power, and
  the increasing dominance of China both with respect to foreign
  policy and global economics.  And, we neglected Afghanistan, from
  which we are still trying to exit.  While we sleep-walk through
  an ideological war, China pursues a policy of acquiring natural
  resources around the world.

- And we have a domestic security related hang-over.  In a time of
  war, individual and constitutional rights are given reduced
  importance.  Because we followed that approach, we've lost rights
  and our government has become more centralized and stronger. 
  President Obama may be no George W.  Bush, but has still not
  corrected these losses.

- We had reduced the energy and resources that we should be
  focusing on domestic needs.  Our infrastructure is aging and not
  being replaced.  Our schools need help.  But, our bank account is
  overdrawn.

- And, through lack of attention, our financial system was raided
  and has crashed, although that is most likely the result of a
  *different* ideological faction.

Some of "America Alone" may sound a bit like in-fighting over who
the *true* conservatives are, but Halper makes good cases for the
the following claims:

- The American public was deceived in the run-up to the Iraq war
  about who was responsible for the attacks of 9/11 and still, as
  of Halper's writing, many believed that Saddam Hussein was active
  in those attacks.  A deluded voting public is a dangerous voting
  public.

- Although neo-conservatives claim to believe in the church of
  Ronald Reagan, with respect to foreign policy they were no where
  near as pragmatic, and were (are) much more belligerent and
  unilateralist.

This is what you get when those with fixed ideas take control.

And for those that believe that the consequences are over, PBS NOW
with David Brancaccio just aired a segment (on 4/24/2010) showing
some of the terrible results for our soldiers that have occurred
while we go on with life as normal.

Hopefully, Halper's careful historical account about how it came
about, if understood by enough people, will help prevent it from
happening again.  The U.S.  has too much military power; and that
power is too dangerous when those who capture it are driven by an
agenda and not much else.

04/26/2010

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